Elected Republicans, not to mention Trump supporters everywhere, stand stupefied by Republican Senator Richard Burr’s decision to subpoena Donald Trump, Jr.
If Burr was trying to hand the Democrats the shot in the arm that they needed to keep their Russia collusion conspiracy theatrics going, it would be hard to imagine him doing a better job than this.
Don Jr. has already endured nearly 30 hours of congressional questioning regarding his inconsequential but much ballyhooed meeting at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Don Jr. has already endured nearly 30 hours of congressional questioning regarding his inconsequential but much ballyhooed meeting at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign. The meeting was scrutinized as a part of the two-year investigation by Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel’s office, and the focus of page upon page of his final report. Mueller concluded that there were no crimes committed justifying any charges related to either the core focus of the probe, collusion, or obstruction of justice.
Yet, at this critical juncture, as Democrats are scrambling for something — anything — to keep Russiagate going, Burr, the man Republicans entrusted with the duty of preventing Congress’s intelligence oversight duty being turned into a political bludgeon, caves in the most spectacular manner.
Republicans across Congress threw up their arms in bafflement.
Not one Republican on the Intelligence Committee would defend Burr’s action, suggesting it was a pure betrayal by their committee chairman — Burr, siding with Mark Warner and the Democrats. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Intelligence Committee member Rand Paul, and even Burr’s fellow Senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis— no fire breathing Trump supporter himself — all condemned Burr’s action in forceful terms.
Burr’s move is difficult to interpret as anything but an effort to make McConnell look like a fool.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had declared “case closed” on the Russia collusion hoax only hours earlier. Burr’s move is difficult to interpret as anything but an effort to make McConnell look like a fool. A top McConnell donor even demanded that the GOP leader immediately strip Burr of his chairmanship.
The President himself responded that he was “very surprised” Burr had made the call to subpoena his son.
“Frankly, for my son — after being exonerated to now get a subpoena to go again and speak again after close to 20 hours of telling everybody that would listen about a nothing meeting. Yeah, I’m pretty surprised,” Trump remarked.
With all due respect to the President, I wasn’t surprised in the least. Richard Burr has always been a terrible Republican.
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Burr has always been a lousy conservative[/caption]
Back in 2015, he was one of the “principled” Republicans “standing up” against then-candidate Donald Trump’s common-sense proposal to stop people entering the U.S. from countries that are hotbeds of international terrorism until we had the chance to establish an effective vetting process.
Burr has always had more in common with the late obstructionist Senator John McCain, who reportedly even considered making Burr his running mate in 2008, rather than backing our current, anti-establishment President.
Nonetheless, facing a tough challenge for reelection to his Senate seat in 2016, Burr endorsed Donald Trump just in time to ride his coattails back to Washington. Once he was safely reinstalled, though, Burr quickly abandoned the America First movement.
Burr endorsed Donald Trump just in time to ride his coattails back to Washington.
Last July, Richard Burr gave credence to the Democrats’ Russia fantasies, just as he’s doing now, by joining his old buddy McCain in slamming President Trump for not turning his Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin into an international spectacle over election interference. At the time, liberals were screaming that Trump had committed “treason,” and Republicans like Burr only made matters worse by indulging that ridiculous fantasy.
McCain’s modus operandi of obstructing the Trump agenda is equally evident in Burr’s legislative actions, too. For two whole years, a Republican-controlled Congress under a Republican president failed to pass a serious bill to secure the border and reduce illegal immigration, largely due to the efforts of Burr and other big business-aligned Republicans in order to maintain the supply of cheap, low-skill labor for their supporters.
In 2016, Burr endorsed a sweeping plan to approve amnesty for illegal aliens already in the country, calling it “temporary.” He has stayed on message ever since, pushing for a path to “legal status,” another form of amnesty — for thousands of illegal farm workers, and has repeatedly lobbied for a massive expansion of the low-skill H-2B and H-2A visas that agribusiness uses to hire migrant laborers at lower wages than American workers demand.
Burr’s decision to align himself with the Democrats to subpoena Don Jr. is only the latest in his litany of betrayals.
The outrageous new subpoena that Richard Burr just foisted on Donald Trump, Jr. caught many in the GOP by surprise, but perhaps they should have seen something like that coming from this Russiagate-enabling RINO.
Charlie Kirk is the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, an advocacy group for young conservatives. His new podcast is available now.
